Willson Contreras Felt ‘Weight Off My Shoulders,’ Now Jed Hoyer Carries Even Heavier Load

Did Rob Manfred hire M. Night Shyamalan to direct this year’s trade deadline? There was a lot of tense buildup, MacGuffins and red herrings galore, and the late twist didn’t quite live up to the expectation set by the preceding events. All signs pointed toward both Willson Contreras and Ian Happ — not to mention at least one starting pitcher and another position player or two — being moved prior to 6pm ET, but the All-Stars were in the lineup to open the series in St. Louis.

Not everything about that is disappointing, provided you’re capable of human emotions. These are people, after all, and they’re fan favorites whose continued presence at Wrigley Field over at least the next two months will take some of the edge off of what may otherwise be a pretty painfully lackluster stretch run. If we’re able to turn away from our own selfishness for a few moments to realize that players aren’t just automatons whose sole purpose is to entertain us, it’s easy to find some good in the end result.

“I feel like there was a lot of weight off my shoulders,” Contreras told reporters after Tuesday’s surprising non-developments. “Today was a long day. I was really anxious to see what was going to happen.”

Contreras went on to admit that he assumed he was going to be traded, though he said the team never said anything to him directly about it. Happ was being shopped as of at least early July and it was believed only an injury would have stopped the Cubs from moving him, but he too remained in Chicago after the market for bats never really developed in the wake of the Juan Soto deal.

“It was nice,” Happ said of being told by David Ross that he wasn’t being traded. “Lots of hugs. I gave Rossy a hug, gave Willy a hug. Happy to be here. Everybody else was out at BP, so I had to make a couple phone calls and tell everybody to stand down from the panic.”

As much as I’d love to continue operating in the warm fuzzies of the moment, that almost feels like falling into the Lovable Losers trope Cubs ownership is still trying to exploit. Instead, I want to turn the focus to Jed Hoyer and the front office that has now taken on an even heavier burden due to the moves they didn’t make and at least one they did.

Let’s start with the most surprising trade the Cubs made, sending righty reliever Scott Effross to the Yankees in exchange for starting pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski on Monday. On paper, there are all kinds of reasons to view this as a smart move by the Cubs. They’ve shown the ability to rebuild (sorry, Jed) a bullpen on the fly every year, they are clearly looking to improve their starting pitching depth, and Wesneski is a high-ceiling starter with plus stuff who is four years younger than Effross.

But this is also a matter of valuing potential over production and shifting more urgency onto their future blueprint than they have on whatever foundational pieces are in place. While a non-closing reliever isn’t typically viewed as a key piece, Effross had established himself as a very reliable option and his approach is such that he should age very well. He’s also exactly the kind of person you want to have on your team.

While the Cubs certainly won’t be sunk if Wesneski doesn’t develop into a capable starter by next year, they need him to work out. The same isn’t true for their returns on the other three righty relievers they traded because none of those veterans were signed past the end of this season (Mychal Givens does have a mutual option). Neither is Contreras, which is where we now turn in an effort to understand what the hell happened.

That the Cubs somehow failed to move their All-Star catcher is borderline shocking to most, even if some had strongly predicted that he would stay. The series of events that led to that failure is manifold and we can’t get into each with any degree of detail, but suffice to say the Soto trade had a lot to do with it. The Cubs had set an understandably high price for Contreras, one teams were clearly reluctant to approach. The Mets were particularly scared to engage in legitimate talks for a player who might have put them over the top.

A quiet deadline for the Mets, who I'm told were a little gun-shy after trading top prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong, a potential Gold Glover who has been raking in Class A, for two months of Javy Báez, plus Trevor Williams, last year. https://t.co/YzDja0u9GO

— Stephanie Apstein (@stephapstein) August 2, 2022

The Rays were also believed to be in the mix for the catcher and the Padres had been mentioned many times as potential suitors for both Contreras and Happ. But with the market as a whole balancing on one player, it felt as though Soto and Josh Bell being traded by Washington set everything askew. Think of upsetting a chess board and then trying to remember which pieces were supposed to go where.

It was almost as though the aftermath of that deal left would-be Cubs trade partners so disappointed that they pivoted to safer, less expensive deals. Hoyer, meanwhile, refused to budge from his position and would not yield even as circumstances dictated he should have. After all, he surely received offers that exceeded the value of qualifying offer compensation.